The Star Wars series The Acolyte is officially directed by Amandla Stenberg.
The announcement came Friday with the official Star Wars account tweet a picture of Stenberg out. Going further back in time than any other Star Wars live-action title, The Acolyte is set a century before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The series promises to depict the galaxy at the height of the High Republic era, when the Jedi were at their strongest and the Sith were believed to have been exterminated from the galaxy.
Stenberg was rumored for the role in a December 2021 report, but the news is now official.
“Russian Doll” co-creator Leslye Headland is directing the series, with Stenberg set to star (“The Hate U Give”). Headland draws at least in part from Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The High Republic release. Announced in February 2020 and launching throughout 2021, the High Republic series includes comics, radio plays, web series and novels. They’ve served as a kind of research and development department where Lucasfilm could next take on the “Star Wars” storytelling.
Stenberg, who identifies as non-binary, broke out in the role of Rue in the 2012 feature film adaptation of The Hunger Games. Since then they have acted in films such as The Hate U Give, The Darkest Minds, Everything, Everything and the recent feature film version of Dear Evan Hansen with Alana Beck. Stenberg has also appeared on television shows such as “Sleepy Hollow,” “The Eddy,” and “Mr. Robinson.”
“We’re taking a look at the political, personal and spiritual things that came up at a time we don’t know much about,” Headland told Vanity Fair in May. “My question when I watched ‘The Phantom Menace’ was always, ‘Well, how did it get to this point?’ How did we get to a point where a Sith Lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi notices? What went wrong? What scenarios have brought us to this moment?”
Welcome Amandla Stenberg to the Star Wars galaxy with us. #The Acolyte https://t.co/PhriTUdZcv pic.twitter.com/LJp9LeZQik
– Star Wars (@starwars) July 22, 2022
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